This may be a stupid question - but when navigating on paper charts, after a few trips you have them all marked up with prior DR plots and such. Is there a good overlay to put on them so you don't ruin the chart and still have good access to plotting on it? It kept the chart dry in the cockpit, too.

I would love to have some other solution than writing on the charts, too. Maybe it is a throwback to the time when I used to do work-study in the library, but I just feel like I'm doing something really wrong when I do it.

Sticky notes work great for various notations, and I once tried to do a plot with onion skin -- Ha! The admiral looked at me with that "you are so pathetic" look (come on, guys, you know the one) -- "Write on the g*d-d***ed chart, for Chrissakes! You bought it! It's yours!"

ID

__________________Intentional Drifter

Observations are gold; hypotheses, silver; and conclusions, bronze.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.--Ben Franklin

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.--Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Don't you just erase your previous plots or are you intentionally wanting to keep them on the chart?

A 2B pencil, good sharpener and a soft eraser is all part of the navigator's tool kit

__________________All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangereous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence

A sailor I know made a "chartkeeper" out of a thin piece of composite board and attached a piece of clear vinyl to the top edge. He could put a folded chart under the vinyl and mark on it with erasable pens. It kept the chart dry in the cockpit, too.

We have been using a Plotting Board with a pantograph and clear plastic chart covers that one can mark with water soluable ink pens for about 15 years now and have been pleased with the results although the plastic does need be renewed periodically. However, on long trips I prefer to keep our plots/tracks directly on the charts, particularly if one is using large scale charts near shore. I find this useful in case one needs reverse course and/or on return trips if one is re-covering the same ground. For plotting directly on the chart we use a soft (2B-3B)) lead mechanical pencil (as previously suggested) which allows the plots/tracks to be later removed with a soft gum eraser. To minimize wear on the chart's paper surface, use an eraser shield that is available at stores that sell graphics materials. Our plotting board is still available at Weems & Plath Chartkit Plotter . While these were originally designed for Chart-Kits, one can use any chart by simply folding it to fit.

FWIW...

__________________"It is not so much for its beauty that the Sea makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from the waves, that so wonderfully renews a weary spirit."

Some use the same material that is used for dodger windows just fine. It works but marking has to be done with a special pen.

I use xerox copies on top of originals and mark the copies (and make notes on them too) buy it does not work if there are too many items, rocks, or shallows. Perhaps a color copy would do then. We use the big size copy machines that do not distort the lat/long relationship.

more than once I've found it handy to glance at the waypoints from a previous passage to help me decide the course to steer in a subsequent passage. This is especially helpful in coastal cruising when I want to figure out how far offshore to travel.

I use xerox copies on top of originals and mark the copies (and make notes on them too) buy it does not work if there are too many items, rocks, or shallows.
b.

I do the same, get them copied by a plan printer and then use green highlighter pen to mark a solid land edge, do a cross hatched interior and use pink to mark edges of shallows and reef and red and green dots for marks.

our erasers from art shop where we were allowed to try out whatever they had, the owner's advice was actually our buy and a great one - a very soft creamy one

another issue - we found some charts holding on to the pencil's lead much stronger than others, the imray's suck in this respect - not only difficult to erase but also leaving a deep groove while no such artefacts from BA, SHOM nor NOAA's charts